Overview of special issue from the 2009 ICABR Conference

Until the recent financial crisis, biology-based industries were some of the most rapidly growing sectors of the world economy—the biofuels business was booming, agriculture commodity prices were high, agricultural biotechnology firms were making record profits, and the pharmaceutical industry was increasingly based on biologics. A recent European Union report has estimated that the contribution of modern biotechnology to the European Union’s gross value added is just under 2%, about the same size as the contribution of all agriculture or the chemical industry. The financial crisis has had impacts on the bio-economy, and these impacts will continue. The bio-economy has been ‘emerging’ for some time now and questions about what exactly fits into the bioeconomy, how important it is, and how large it will be in the future are important topics for debate. Within the bioeconomy, some components are emerging, but several major constraints to further growth still exist. These aspects and a few more were discussed at the 13th International Consortium on Agricultural Biotechnology Research (ICABR) conference on ‘The Emerging Bioeconomy.’1 This special issue includes a selection of 10 articles presented at the conference. The issue further includes a summary of the key findings from the conference as well as the Santaniello Memorial Lecture given by Odin Knudsen, Managing Director of Environmental Markets at J.P. Morgan.bioeconomy; technical change

Agricultural Biotechnology: Legal Liability from Comparative and International Law Perspectives

Agricultural biotechnology has generated much discussion about possible legal liability for growing transgenic crops. In this article, the authors discuss how the legal regimes of four nations (Canada, Denmark, Germany, and the United States) would resolve various scenarios likely to raised liabilility issues. Building on this comparative discussion, the authors then discuss these likely scenarios as addressed in the on-going negotiations under the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety Article 27 (Liability and Redress). The authors end the article with recommendations about an appropriate legal liabilty regime at the international level

Industrial biotechnology for developing countries: The case for genetically modified biofuels in Kenya

Attempts to diversify the energy portfolios of developed countries with green technologies have brought competition between food and fuel for crop production resources to the forefront of public policy debates. Biofuel policies in the European Union (EU) and the United States (US) mandate the long-term use of renewable energy in transportation, independent of production capacity and technical feasibility. Both the US and EU policies explicitly allow for biofuel imports and, hence, have the potential to provide developing countries with export opportunities. For example, the EU is seen as a market that could be supplied with biofuels produced in Kenya. As a result, contentious land acquisitions have been made in Kenya to make way for sugar cane and jatropha cultivation for biofuel production. One potential means of improving the efficiency of Kenya’s agricultural sector is the application of transgenic technologies. The objective of this article is to assess whether a biofuel industry could be developed in Kenya, based on the use of genetically modified (GM) feedstocks to supply the EU demand for biofuel. This article concludes that GM agriculture will improve the economic returns for those Kenyan farmers willing to engage in the production of GM biofuel crops.Keywords: Barriers to trade, energy policy, genetically modified (GM) crops, international trade, land-use policyAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(15), pp. 1722-173

How Low Can You Go? The Consequences of Zero Tolerance

Establishing tolerance levels for the presence of unwanted materials that may inadvertently become co-mingled with products that are acceptable in markets is a problem for regulators that requires arbitrary lines in the sand to be drawn. While the degree of tolerance is ultimately an arbitrary value -- because the full information necessary to make a non-arbitrary decision is never forthcoming -- decision making can be informed by theory, existing information, and where gaps in information lie. Where tolerances have been established that do not appear to have been informed, they should be re-examined if for no other reason than they may impose unnecessary costs on society. Zero tolerance has been imposed by regulators in a number of jurisdictions for unwanted materials that could co-mingle with products acceptable in the market. One such case is the European Union's (EU) policy of zero tolerance for co-mingling of unapproved genetically modified (GM) materials with agri-food products. This article uses two case studies related to the regulation of GM materials in the EU to examine the implications of zero tolerance. While the topic of the regulation of modern biotechnology has been the subject of much debate in the EU and globally, there appears to be little discussion of zero tolerance. Given that zero tolerance imposes considerable externalities on non-EU agri-food sectors as well as in the EU itself, it may be time to re-examine zero tolerance in an informed way

Estimating oceanic primary production using vertical irradiance and chlorophyll profiles from ocean gliders in the North Atlantic

An autonomous underwater vehicle (Seaglider) has been used to estimate marine primary production (PP) using a combination of irradiance and fluorescence vertical profiles. This method provides estimates for depth-resolved and temporally evolving PP on fine spatial scales in the absence of ship-based calibrations. We describe techniques to correct for known issues associated with long autonomous deployments such as sensor calibration drift and fluorescence quenching. Comparisons were made between the Seaglider, stable isotope (13C), and satellite estimates of PP. The Seaglider-based PP estimates were comparable to both satellite estimates and stable isotope measurements

Policy recommendations from the 13th ICABR conference on the emerging bioeconomy

The International Consortium on Agricultural Biotechnology Research held its 13th annual conference in Ravello, Italy in June 2009. The theme of the conference was the bioeconomy,and this topic was addressed through research presentations from academia, government, and industry. Numerous presentations from developing countries highlighted the benefits of agricultural biotechnology in these nations. The broad range of presentations provided a wealth of insights, resulting in three policy recommendations regarding future funding, international regulation, and technology transfer.global food crisis, biofuels, food safety, innovation

Differential antitumor immunity mediated by NKT cell subsets in vivo

We showed previously that NKT cell–deficient TCR Jα18(−/−) mice are more susceptible to methylcholanthrene (MCA)-induced sarcomas, and that normal tumor surveillance can be restored by adoptive transfer of WT liver-derived NKT cells. Liver-derived NKT cells were used in these studies because of their relative abundance in this organ, and it was assumed that they were representative of NKT cells from other sites. We compared NKT cells from liver, thymus, and spleen for their ability to mediate rejection of the sarcoma cell line (MCA-1) in vivo, and found that this was a specialized function of liver-derived NKT cells. Furthermore, when CD4(+) and CD4(−) liver-derived NKT cells were administered separately, MCA-1 rejection was mediated primarily by the CD4(−) fraction. Very similar results were achieved using the B16F10 melanoma metastasis model, which requires NKT cell stimulation with α-galactosylceramide. The impaired ability of thymus-derived NKT cells was due, in part, to their production of IL-4, because tumor immunity was clearly enhanced after transfer of IL-4–deficient thymus-derived NKT cells. This is the first study to demonstrate the existence of functionally distinct NKT cell subsets in vivo and may shed light on the long-appreciated paradox that NKT cells function as immunosuppressive cells in some disease models, whereas they promote cell-mediated immunity in others

Marine artificial light at night:An empirical and technical guide

The increasing illumination of our world by artificial light at night (ALAN) has created a new field of global change research with impacts now being demonstrated across taxa, biological ranks and spatial scales. Following advances in terrestrial ecology, marine ALAN has become a rapidly growing research area attracting scientists from across all biomes. Technological limitations, complexities of researching many coastal and marine ecosystems and the interdisciplinary nature of ALAN research present numerous challenges. Drawing on expertise from optical oceanographers, modellers, community ecologists, experimental and molecular biologists, we share practical advice and solutions that have proven useful for marine ALAN research. Discussing lessons learnt early on can help in the effective and efficient development of a field. The guide follows a sensory ecology approach to marine light pollution and consolidates physics, ecology and biology. First, we introduce marine lightscapes highlighting how these differ from terrestrial ones and provide an overview of biological adaptations to them. Second, we discuss study design and technology to best quantify ALAN exposure of and impacts on marine and coastal organisms including molecular tools and approaches to scale-up marine ALAN research. We conclude that the growing field of marine ALAN research presents opportunities not only for improving our understanding of this globally widespread stressor, but also for advancing fundamental marine photobiology, chronobiology and night-time ecology. Interdisciplinary research will be essential to gain insights into natural marine lightscapes shaping the ecology and evolution coastal and marine ecosystems

Microarray-based gene set analysis: a comparison of current methods

BACKGROUND: The analysis of gene sets has become a popular topic in recent times, with researchers attempting to improve the interpretability and reproducibility of their microarray analyses through the inclusion of supplementary biological information. While a number of options for gene set analysis exist, no consensus has yet been reached regarding which methodology performs best, and under what conditions. The goal of this work was to examine the performance characteristics of a collection of existing gene set analysis methods, on both simulated and real microarray data sets. Of particular interest was the potential utility gained through the incorporation of inter-gene correlation into the analysis process. RESULTS: Each of six gene set analysis methods was applied to both simulated and publicly available microarray data sets. Overall, the various methodologies were all found to be better at detecting gene sets that moved from non-active (i.e., genes not expressed) to active states (or vice versa), rather than those that simply changed their level of activity. Methods which incorporate correlation structures were found to provide increased ability to detect altered gene sets in some settings. CONCLUSION: Based on the results obtained through the analysis of simulated data, it is clear that the performance of gene set analysis methods is strongly influenced by the features of the data set in question, and that methods which incorporate correlation structures into the analysis process tend to achieve better performance, relative to methods which rely on univariate test statistics